N-Acetylaspartic acid

RFLP, Restriction fi agment length polymorphism NAA, N-acetylaspartic acid. 

Surendran, S., F. J. Bamforth, A. Chan, S. K. Tyring, S. 1. Goodman, and R. Matalon. 2003. Mild elevation of N-acetylaspartic acid and macrocephaly Diagnostic problem. J Child Neurol 18 809-812. 

Organic acids (N-acetylaspartic acid) none Urine Compound has bad recovery in organic solvent extraction... 

Canavan disease usually presents in early childhood with hypotonia, visual loss and accelerated head growth. MRI of the brain shows a leukodystrophy. In urine, plasma, and CSF N-acetylaspartic acid is elevated. However, sometimes the elevation in urine is marginal. The diagnosis can be confirmed by analysis of aspartoacylase and by mutation studies. Prenatal diagnosis is possible, preferably by the combined analysis of N-acetylaspartic acid in amniotic fluid and mutation studies. 

N-acetylaspartate is among the most abundant amino acids in the brain, although its precise function remains elusive. Putative roles have included osmoregulation and... 

Fig. 4. 500 MHz DOSY spectrum of a D2O solution of a perchloric acid extract of gerbil brain. Assignments of selected signals are indicated as follows ac = acetate ala = alanine cho = choline cr = creatine ere = creatinine etn = ethanolamine GABA = 7-aminobutyric acid glu = glutamate GPC = glycerophosphocholine lac = lactate m-ino = myo-inositol NAA = N-acetylaspartate succ = succinate and tau = taurine. (Raw data...

Fig. 6.22. The (a) 1-D and (b) 2-D-DOSY spectrum of a mixture containing D2O, glucose, ATP and SDS micelles [50]. (Adapted with permission from ref. [50]. Copyright 1993 American Chemical Society), (c) 1-D and (d) 2D-DOSY spectrum of the perchloric acid extract of a gerbil brain in D2O. Selected assignments are ac — acetate ala — alanine cho — choline cr — creatinine etn — ethanolamine GABA — y-aminobutyric acid glu — glutamine CPC — glycerophospho-choline lac — lactate m-ino — myo-inositol NAA — N-acetylaspartate succ — succinate and tau = taurine [51]. (Adapted with permission from ref. [51]. Copyright 1997 Elsevier.)...

Use of racemic methyl N-acetylaspartate p-semialdehyde as a substrate for RAMA provides a precursor to 3-deoxy-D-arabino-heptulosonic acid 7-phosphate (DAHP,... 

The biologically active monosaccharide 3-deoxy-D-aratono-heptulosonic acid 7-phosphate (8 DAHP) is an important intermediate in the biosynthesis of aromatic amino acids in plants (the shikimate pathway). As shown in Scheme 2, this compound has been produced in a combined chemical and enzymatic synthesis from racemic N-acetylaspartate (3-semialdehyde (4) and DHAP (l).67 The four-step synthesis proceeds in an overall yield of 13% (37% for the aldolase reaction). The enzymatic step generates the required, enantiomerically pure, syn aldol adduct compound (5). In view of the broad range of substrates tolerated by FDP aldolase, this method may be applicable to the production of analogs of DAHP. 

On the basis of FruA-catalyzed aldol reactions 3-deoxy-D-arabino-heptulosonic acid 7-phosphate (DAFIP, 26), an intermediate of the shikimic acid pathway, has been synthesized from N-acetylaspartic semialdehyde 68 (Figure 5.35) [200]. Precursors to KDO (Section 5.3.2) and its 4-deoxy analog (71) have been prepared by FruA catalysis from aldehydes 70 that incorporate an acrylic moiety for further functionalization [201]. 

---